


Stealth

by The_Descolada



Series: more like team LGBT [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Yang Xiao Long, just a dab bc it's my brand, maybe a bit of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28246500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Descolada/pseuds/The_Descolada
Summary: Yang can't stop thinking about Penny's offhand comment, even if she'd much rather focus on Blake being back.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long
Series: more like team LGBT [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2069136
Comments: 23
Kudos: 101





	Stealth

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at writing fanfic and my first time writing fiction in uh....a decade, so I hope people like it!
> 
> Major thanks to my friend [dandelionsknight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dandelionsknight/pseuds/dandelionsknight) for helping me edit this, and also giving me the courage to actually write something!

A dull ringing filled Yang’s ears.

She hadn’t expected what seemed to be a normal, albeit urgent, conversation about her missing teammate to suddenly include a phrase that would set her off this bad. Penny’s comment – joke? No, she seemed too naïve for that – had come flying out of nowhere, and her mind was now a track of rocky rapids rather than the direct, uninterrupted stream it had been to find Blake.

Well, Blake was found, so she should be happy now her partner was safe, right? Not cowardly sitting curled up in her bunk, feeling a way she hadn’t since back in Signal. This shouldn’t be _affecting_ her this much! It was just a stupid comment, not even directed at her! She wasn’t even mad at Penny for it – how could she be, when she hadn’t even spoken up? No one had laughed, or even expressed any other emotion than confusion, but she still felt as though no one else was bothered by it. She could see it from their faces, no one else but her was –

“ _Fuck,_ ” she whispered to herself, “ _You’re spiraling again, Xiao Long._ ” Weiss and Ruby had gone off to the cafeteria, saying something about how they were starving after the search, which, admittedly, she hadn’t really listened too closely to through the storm of mixed signals and self-doubt knocking around inside her skull. Blake would be back soon, though. She had run off to the library almost immediately when they had gotten back and probably wouldn’t be long – _You can’t let her see you like this, she’ll get the wrong idea_ – so all Yang could really do was wait, knees tugged close to her, silent against the volume of her thoughts.

The door creaked open and she shot up, eager to see her partner despite her stress. Actually seeing Blake, it seemed, would have to wait for a moment, as the girl was almost entirely blocked from her vision by a small mountain of books.

“Yang – _oof,_ ” a book nearly slipped from her grasp before being steadied by her shifting the other direction, “Can I, uh, get some help here? I don’t know if I can put these down easily and I don’t want them to fall.”

“O-of course!” Pushing her concern from her mind, Yang leapt to her feet and let Blake offload half the stack into her arms. “You know, you could have asked me to come if you were planning on taking out half the library,” she attempted to joke, stopping short when she was abruptly pinned by her partner’s amber stare, now unobstructed by literature.

“I did, Yang, but you didn’t seem to have heard me.” Her brows furrowed quizzically. “You seemed…preoccupied.”

Yang gulped. “I – I um…sorry. I was –“ her words got caught in her throat and she spun around, placing her half of the books gently down on the desk to cover her unease.

“Yang?” A body crowded next to her at the desk to place down the other books, and she suddenly became all too aware of the word _proximity._ Spending a day without Blake by her side had, strangely, made her hyperaware of her presence. She glanced sideways, and downwards – _was Blake always so much shorter or was her alarming closeness magnifying the effect –_ only to be skewered by that piercing stare again. “Is everything…ok?” A note of doubt crept into her partner’s voice. “You’re not…worried about me being a Faunus, are you?”

“What – no!” Yang panicked, suddenly realizing the mixed signals she must have been sending herself. “It’s not about that, I promise, that’s totally cool, I’m just…” she faltered, not finding the words despite the thousands in her head. “I’m happy to have you back, I’m sorry I seemed so upset for no reason, I _promise_.” She glanced at the books, at the wall, _anywhere_ but at those golden eyes that made her feel exposed and…strange.

She heard a small huff from Blake, then nothing for what felt like several minutes. “Yang…” her partner started, hesitantly placing a hand on her arm. “I know you and Ruby and Weiss asked me to come talk to you if I felt something was wrong. You…should do the same, yeah? I _want_ to know what’s on your mind, especially if it’s something I can help with.”

Yang continued staring at the wall, her heart still feeling as though it was dropping into her stomach, but also beating way too fast. Why would her heart rate be set off so much by her teammate’s fingers on her arm? Why couldn’t she look Blake in the eyes? “I –“ she sagged against the desk. “I need to sit down,” she managed, reluctantly leaving Blake’s side to sit down heavily on the nearest bunk – which happened to be Blake’s.

Her mind was still roiling, tugging her in every direction at once – should she tell her? Would she be okay with the answer? Ruby and most of her friends at Signal had been, of course, but hearing that comment from Penny, however innocuous, had set off explosions of doubt in her mind’s proverbial sky.

“Yang, I’ve never seen you like this before, please…just talk to me,” Blake ventured after a few moments, settling herself down to Yang’s right on the edge of the bed.

Yang sighed. Oh, to hell with secrets. “Blake, I…you’re not the only one with something to hide that you shouldn’t have to.” She glanced to her right, sensing growing confusion from her partner. “I well – I maybe understand some of what you’ve been going through better than you’d think, though it’s definitely not the same, of course.”

Moment of truth.

“Blake I…I’m trans, okay? Penny just said something probably not meant to make fun of that at all while we were out looking for you, and it’s kinda been eating at me all day.” She let out a long breath. “I’m sorry I worried you.”

There was a long, long silence. _Oh fuck, please let that not have been a mistake._ She already trusted Blake so, so much, to have that trust broken would be – “Ohhhh.” Blake… giggled? “Yang, you had me so worried for a second there, I thought you were going to tell me you were a mad axe murderer or something!” _Oh, thank the gods._ “I’m a little confused, though, you always seem like you’re trying to be so…feminine?”

Yang cocked her head quizzically, “Well, yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, you…want to be a guy, right?” The confused look in Blake’s eyes was too much for Yang, and she burst into peals of laughter, falling back onto the bed. Her partner only looked more confused by the second as she continued to laugh hysterically. “I thought – I thought you meant –“

Yang managed to calm her mirth, though her sides _hurt_ from the sudden hilarity. “Blake, I’m already who I want to be, I’m a trans _woman_.”

Blake turned bright red with sudden realization. “Oh! I – I assumed you were, like, pre, um, everything, and, and um –“

“It’s okay, Blake,” she pushed herself back up into a sitting position, “It was a simple misunderstanding, I know I uh, well, pass really well, so I don’t blame you for the mix-up, although it was, “ she snorted again, “ _hilarious_.” Blake’s blush turned a touch darker with her obviously growing embarrassment. “I was lucky enough to figure it out really early, and my dad and – my dad’s really cool, and he helped me talk to some doctors before, um, yeah. So I’ve been pretty stealth since Signal, if you get what I mean?”

Her partner raised a finger to her bow. “Yeah…yeah, I definitely do.”

“I thought just now that, well, since something so core to who _you_ are was exposed so suddenly, you should know something about me that I don’t really tell most people as well. Well…not that it really should change anything, I hope.” She looked down, suddenly a bit doubtful again.

A warm hand was placed on top of her own, and her breath caught in her throat for a moment. “Of course not, Yang. I might not have the biggest experience with, well, honestly people in general, but I’m not an idiot.” Yang let out the breath she’d been holding, relieved at the answer.

“Signal was honestly kinda rough, near the start, anyway.” Why was Blake’s hand still on hers, why was it so _soft_ – “I had been on blockers for ages, but hadn’t been on the other meds for all that long when I got there, and I think people could…tell that something was different about me. I don’t think anyone I didn’t know super well ever found out, but I was really, really scared that someone would. I just talked to Ruby about this stuff mostly, barely any of my friends there knew either.”

“That’s definitely pretty nerve wracking, I get it,” Blake whispered, still _way too close to her_ , “Though like you said, it’s not exactly the same. Other than Ruby, well, and me now, does anyone else here know?”

“No, it’s just the two of you. I haven’t told Weiss yet, maybe…maybe because she didn’t have any reaction to what Penny said.” She could tell her partner was curious about what exactly Penny _had_ said, but the other girl remained silent, listening to her. “I’m just…I don’t want people to see me any differently. Just one person who I don’t want to know, for good reason,” her mind flashed to Cardin, “and _everyone_ will see me differently.”

Blake’s hand squeezed on her own comfortingly. “I understand. Thank you for…trusting me, like I trusted you.”

“Yeah, no – no problem.” She suddenly was a bit overwhelmed with Blake’s presence…but definitely not in a bad way.

“If I might ask, um, why do you draw so much attention to yourself?” Blake asked.

“What do you mean?” Yang cocked an eyebrow quizzically, confused.

“Well, you know how I try to keep myself out of the limelight,” Blake giggled again. “It’s kinda my whole deal, so I was just confused that you were “stealth” too, like you said. You just seem to give off this energy that makes everyone in the room look at you.”

Yang blushed. “You mean my outfits?”

“Well, yeah, you do tend to dress in some pretty, uh, revealing clothing.” It was Blake’s turn to blush. Yang raised an eyebrow. “Oh, shut up!” Her partner elbowed her lightly. _Huh._

Yang leaned back, steadying herself with her hands on the edge of the bed. “I think I saw what a lot of other Huntresses were wearing around Vale and wanted people to look at me the way they looked at them…I haven’t given too much thought to it, I guess.” She grimaced. “And that includes the way some men did, which is…less than pleasant for me. I don’t think I particularly _love_ these clothes, though they are pretty stylish, don’t get me wrong.” She let go of the bedside and let herself fall on her back again, staring at the bunk above her. “I just wanted to look cute, I guess,” she whispered. Blake hummed in understanding.

A long, but not uncomfortable, silence fell between them. Yang’s mind was all jumbled up again, between thoughts of clothing styles and Blake’s hand still covering her own. After what felt like several minutes, her partner cleared her throat as though she was about to say something –

The door slammed fully open and the hand was abruptly snatched away. “Yang! Blake!” Ruby’s shrill voice suddenly filled the entire room, “The cafeteria has surf and turf for dinner, you two _cannot_ miss this!” Her sister was stringing along Weiss behind her, who looked like she had been through a windstorm. Blake’s bow twitched at the mention of _surf_ , prompting a giggle from Yang.

“Okay, okay, Rubes, we’re coming. Wouldn’t want to deprive anyone of fish, huh?” She sat back up, smiling as she watched Blake look somewhat bashful at her obvious eagerness. No sooner than she had confirmed their departure, Ruby and Weiss vanished in a flash back out the door, Weiss’s protests at being dragged along echoing down the corridor.

Blake adjusted her bow and walked to the door before turning back with a questioning gaze. “You coming?”

“Course. Let me just, um, get my shoes, I’ll meet you there.” She got up, reaching over to grab her boots and start lacing them up.

“Yang?” Her eyes shot up to Blake, peeking back into the room around the door. She raised an eyebrow in lieu of answering. “I um…think you’d be cute no matter what you wear.” And with that, her partner withdrew.

Yang, on the other hand, sat there frozen, a blush and a huge smile creeping over her face.

_Huh?_

**Author's Note:**

> Yang is trans and I won't hear a word otherwise.
> 
> The hilarious mixup Blake makes is actually based on a real life experience I personally was there for, involving a trans woman I was friends with in college and a very well meaning but inexperienced cis person she had just come out to. She later told me it was "weirdly validating", if I remember correctly.
> 
> I normally do more art than writing, but my ipad is broken for the time being so I'm branching out. You can find more of my work on my [tumblr](https://the-descolada.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/The_Descolada)!


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